Christopher Chase, 2009

At the NZFBB Auckland Champs in 08, it was his wife Raechelle that took the stage and the Overall Title. This year it was the turn of her other half Christopher to take the stage and Chase (sorry had to be said!) the elusive title.

It was Chris's return after 14 years to the stage and he was up against some big seasoned competitors Nathan O'Hearn and Johnson Reihana in the Open Men o90kg. But despite the time away, Chris proved to himself that he still had the size and condition needed in this competitive class.

In this article we find out how Chris coped with pre contest, this time round with family duties and any plans for him and Raechelle to ultimately compete together.

Christopher Chase

1 How long has it been since you last competed? Why did you want to compete again?
My last contest was the 1996 NABBA World Champs in Germany, I came 7th out of 22 in the Medium / Tall class and was even called out with the 2nd and 3rd place getters, I had just turned 22 and it had been my goal to win nationals and turn pro from the age of 16!

That was about 14 Years ago now and my goals have changed although I still want to win the NZ Nationals one year, I'm not interested in turning pro, at this comp I really just wanted to prove to myself that I could come back and be better than my previous best (which I think I achieved).

2. Was it harder this time round as you now have a family to work around? How did you work around them? It was harder from a time management point of view but then again doing anything for yourself is harder with young kids. I didn't want to be selfish so I found myself doing most of my contest prep either when they slept or when they were at daycare, which is only 3 times a week. My family life didn't suffer but I pretty much stopped going to work LOL.
3 What was the hardest part about competing? mental or physical For me definitely physical I was very sick with Glandular fever for about the last 3 months, which I didn't find out until a couple of weeks out from the competition date. I'm glad I didn't get diagnosed earlier or I probably would not have gone through with it.
There were times I literally couldn't eat and subsequently I ended up smaller than I had planned to. On a few occasions Raechelle thought I might need an ambulance. We would be training and I would do a set and then have to lie on the floor and try not to vomit. I was dizzy and felt like death. I thought it must be due to my dieting. Little did I know I actually had glandular fever!

4 Were you happy with how you shaped up? did you enjoy being up on stage
again?
To be honest I was a little surprised I looked as good as I did under the circumstances. Raechelle and I only got back into training about 20 months ago after a 'pregnancy break' and I definitely didn't look anything even remotely close to how I anted to look. The end of last year I had my second
knee operation and training legs has been difficult since then. I was only able to train quads properly for the last 2-3 weeks before I competed so I was pretty happy with the way I shaped up.

5 What was your typical diet plan?

It became more calorie restricted as the contest approached (which in retrospect was a mistake) but it would go something like this morning:
Cardio+Thermo's.
Breakfast: oats and protein powder.
Train. Protein shake (meal replacement)
Lunch, whatever we would eat out usually so as long as it had enough protein most meals where ok. 3.00p.m Shake and nuts.
5.00p.m yoghurt,
8.00p.m dinner just protein,
9.00p.m more cardio and thermos's
10.00p.m shake 10.30p.m. This was the plan and I did my best to stick to it.
Even getting these meals in was a real effort a lot of the time. Every time I ate I felt like I wanted to vomit. Sometimes ii just ate whatever I could.. you can check out my journal on Raechelle's website
that's where all the secrets to my diet are LOL.

6 What supplements did you use?
I used a bucket load of vitamin C near the end and wish I had sooner, Protein shakes and a few fat burners but I avoided too much caffeine or stimulants they make me act stupid and burn muscle. Nothing out of the ordinary really.

7 Your weight training split and how much cardio did you do each day?
We train just one body part per day and try to train 6 days a week but often find ourselves playing catch up so it can get pretty random I was doing an hour a day cardio and that increased to an hour and a half closer to contest day.

8 Will we see you compete in another show? Definitely I still haven't won! This year is out with Raechelle competing in Canada in 12 weeks time and once she does that we intend to add to 'TEAM CHASE'. In saying that, to date our babies don't seam to like to sleep much, so I would be doing well to train at all the first year of that baby's life that would see me compete in 2012. I will be 38 or 39 depending on the time of the year. Still no hurry!

9 Will we see you and Raechelle compete in the same show together? or would that be too much strain on family life?! We have all ways said we would, but just not sure

Christopher Chase, 2009

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